The Sochi Olympics are in full swing, but Americans looking to watch the games online need a cable account to check out NBC's coverage. There are ways around it though. Here's what you'll need to do.

You have two pretty solid alternatives to NBC's paid streams from the BBC in the United Kingdom or the CBC in Canada, but Americans can't stream the live video without some workarounds because they're region locked. As NPR pointed out during the last Olympics, using a service to get around this is a bit of a legal and moral grey area, so use them at your own risk.

You have a bunch of different options for ways to do this that we'll show you at the end, but we're going to take a look at the simplest and most reliable way to watch these live streams, using the same service we used during the 2012 Summer Olympics: Unblock Us. We've tried a ton of different options, and Unblock Us consistently gave us the best quality of streams. It's free for one week or $4.99 a month. Here's how to set it up.

Step 1: Sign Up for Unblock-Us

Head over to Unblock Us and create a free account with your email address. Within a couple of minutes you get an email confirming your account is active, and you're ready to go.

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If you're not watching the Olympics, we suggest you turn Unblock Us off and return to your normal DNS settings so you don't slow down your connection. If you want something you can easily flip on and off, you have a few more options.

Alternate Methods to Watch Other Olympic Streams

The above method is just one of many different services you can use. If you'd like to try a different approach, here are a few suggestions:

Use a Browser Extension: The absolute easiest way to stream overseas content is through a browser extension. We likeProxmate because it's easy to set up and provides you with near instant access to the BBC's stream (CBC won't work). If you'd prefer to watch the Canadians take on things, Hola Unblocker is an extension that offers one-click access to the CBC's Olympics stream. However, in our tests, both of these extensions gave us choppy, low quality streams that were unwatchable. That said, the slowness is probably because of the increased viewership during the Olympics, so your mileage may vary, and they're so easy to test out that it's worth a quick install just to see if they give you better results. You can also try other similar extensions like ZenMate or Media Hint.

Tunnelbear: If you want an incredibly easy-to-use, on-off switch, Tunnelbear works wonders. Simply download the software, flip the switch to UK (or Canada), and you can start streaming immediately. When you want your normal internet back, turn it off. The free version will only get you 500 MB for the month (probably less than an hour of streaming), but $4.99/month gets you unlimited access. It's a little slower than Unblock Us, and the connection dropped a couple of times, but it might be worth it if you want a quick toggle for your location.

Use Linode and an SSH Tunnel: This method is a bit more difficult to start up, but it supposedly works really well. You're essentially signing up for a virtual Linux server, then tunneling through that to access the BBC stream.

Use Any VPN You Want: Another option is to set up a VPN to reroute your traffic. Any VPN will do (although you might want to stick with one of these five). If you subscribe to a Usenet service like GigaNews, you might even get a VPN for free as part of the package. Users over on Reddit have had mixed luck with the Windows-only VPN software ExpatShield. It's free and assigns you a UK IP address. It's worth checking out if you're on a Windows machine.

Set up a Proxy Server: If a browser extension is more your style then using a proxy service is easy enough. The speeds won't be that great, but it's easy to shut off when you're done. You can also try the Tor browser for a few more options.

Regardless of which method you choose, the BBC and CBC coverage is a lot more widespread than the NBC's (not to mention viewable without a cable account), so enjoy the show.